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Building Censorship Walls - A Question For Journalists

By Pamela Jones et al.

China has issued a paper defending its censorship of the Internet. John Oates of The Register describes its eerie language:

The paper claims: "Chinese citizens fully enjoy freedom of speech on the Internet. The Constitution of the People's Republic of China confers on Chinese citizens the right to free speech. With their right to freedom of speech on the Internet protected by the law, they can voice their opinions in various ways on the Internet....

But the limits to this freedom would cover almost everything. The paper warns: "Citizens are not allowed to infringe upon state, social and collective interests or the legitimate freedom and rights of other citizens. No organization or individual may utilize telecommunication networks to engage in activities that jeopardize state security, the public interest or the legitimate rights and interests of other people."

And that's not all. There are separate laws against disseminating vulgar or pornographic material, anything that may subvert state power, undermine national unity, infringe upon national honour, advocating heresy and spreading information that infringes upon the legitimate rights and interests of others. Gambling, propagating heretical or superstitious ideas, spreading rumours and disrupting social order are also banned

Here, of course, in the US the government couldn't do that. There are, evidently, Constitutions and then there are Constitutions. But I have a question. Given the censorship of content for applications for the iPad and now Microsoft's phone, what are the implications for journalists?

Full post as published by Groklaw on June 08, 2010 (boomark / email).